


The Forest of Old

by BobSaysHelloFromNL



Series: Merlin Pokémon AU [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Pokemon Fusion, Are these enough tags, Art, Banter, Friendship, Includes Fanart, Multi, Slow Burn, cuteness, have I convinced you yet?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:35:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26466547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BobSaysHelloFromNL/pseuds/BobSaysHelloFromNL
Summary: While travelling through the Forest of Dean, Gwen and Merlin their day gets ruined by a forest fire. Not to mention the appearance of a big prat, running blindly after a mythical fairy Pokémon. (2nd chapter is art)
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Series: Merlin Pokémon AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1913911
Comments: 5
Kudos: 24





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to everyone's encouragement I have written another instalment! I have ideas for at least eight more of these, but of course only time can tell how far I actually get. There's also more artwork in progress, though I have yet to figure out Gwen's clothing. For now though, happy reading :)

After a cloudy morning, Merlin and Gwen were enjoying some nice sunny weather for a change as they travelled on a winding path through the Forest of Dean. They were on their way to Warwick where the first gym leader of their journey was located. As usual, Aithusa had nestled herself in Merlin’s hair while his Charmander, Festus rested cosily in its Poké Ball. Gwen’s Nidoran was happily strolling alongside them when a rustling from the bushes drew its attention. 

Out sprang a cat-sized pokémon, its upper body a light-blue colour and its bottom-half black. The star-shaped patterns in its ears and on the tip of its tail were a striking yellow, just like its eyes. 

“It’s a Shinx!” Gwen exclaimed. “Look how cute it is!” 

The Shinx in question puffed up in pride, an extra glint appearing in its eyes. It leapt at the Nidoran, wagging its tail in a challenge.

“And a playful one it seems,” Merlin commented. “I think he wants you to battle him.”

Gwen grinned. “Well, what do you think, Nidoran? You up to it?”

The poison pokémon squeaked in agreement, hopping a distance away before turning determinately towards the Shinx. It squared itself up by raising its back slightly off the ground, showing off its spikes. 

The Shinx acted unbothered by it, licking at its paws to feign disinterest.

“Nidoran, use Scratch!” The pokémon dashed off, heading straight for its opponent. The Shinx effortlessly evaded the hit, retaliating with a Tackle of its own. 

Aithusa chirped in concern and Merlin patted her head in reassurance. Nidoran shook the blow off. When it had visibly recovered, Gwen shouted out, “Dodge the next hit, quickly! Then use Double Kick!”

The Shinx had charged up its electricity and had now enveloped itself in a bright yellow Spark, rushing at the Nidoran. Nidoran obeyed its trainer, jumping swiftly to the side before turning back and delivering a set of well-aimed kicks. 

The Shinx crawled back up but instead of attacking, it sort of glanced expectantly at Gwen. Taking the hint, Gwen dug out one of her Poké Balls and threw it. It caught the Shinx, wobbling three times before clicking shut. 

“Yes! Congrats, Gwen!”

With a wide smile Gwen picked the Poké Ball up before turning to her Nidoran and enveloping it in a big hug. “We did it, we caught our first pokémon!”

Merlin raised a hand up to scratch Aithusa’s feathers, who leant into his touch. He thought back to the day she’d hatched, the start of their friendship. Then Aithusa suddenly chirped in alarm and flew up, pushing herself off from Merlin’s head. The Swablu disappeared through the treetops before frantically flying back down again. It took a few strands of Merlin’s hair in its beak and started tugging.

“What is it?” Merlin asked her. “Fire? A big one?”

Aithusa chirped in confirmation. The image of multiple large whisps of smoke appeared in Merlin’s mind. “Oh, yeah that’s proper big,” he commented.

Gwen overheard the exchange and had stood up again, wearing an expression of mixed alarm and confusion. 

“There’s a huge forest fire up ahead, we have to find safety somewhere. Do you know if there’s a pond or a lake nearby?” 

Recognising the urgency Gwen didn’t question how exactly he knew that and nodded. “We just passed a lake, in fact. Slightly off the path, I’ll lead the way.” She returned Nidoran to its Poké Ball and set off, Merlin following right behind her. After all, she’d grown up around here and knew the forest much better than he did.

Along the way there were surpassed by many fleeing pokémon, namely fast four-legged ones and winged ones. The slow crawly bug-types were having a harder time at it. Merlin, having scooped up three Metapod already, felt horrible about having to leave the any other pokémon behind. He just hoped the fire wouldn’t spread too far. 

When they reached the lake, many wild pokémon had already instinctively sought out the same shelter. They were all gathered on the opposite side, heads turned upwards to watch the smoke rise through the opening of the trees. Their distress became more prominent to Merlin as they approached the group. He put the Metapod down before turning to Gwen. “I’m going to make a few more trips, see if there’s anyone who needs a helping hand.”

Gwen nodded resolutely. “And I’m coming with you.”

Merlin wanted to argue, but one well-placed glare shut him up. “Alright, you know the way better than I do anyway.”

They headed directly for the fire, trying to get a bit closer as they figured that’s where their help would be most needed. Between the two of them they managed to save another six pokémon. They skies had turned darker again as a result of the smoke, casting an ominous shadow over the forest. When they got back from their second trip, they encountered Arthur, heading exactly the other way.

“Where are you going?” Merlin shouted after him. “The fire’s getting closer.”

Arthur didn’t respond and just kept going, jogging a few paces before looking around. 

“He’s going to get himself killed again,” Merlin muttered. Without wasting more time, he handed the pokémon he’d saved off to Gwen without any warning and rushed after Arthur.

“Merlin, wait!” Gwen tried to stop him, but he didn’t listen. Merlin followed Arthur, who seemed to be moving in a random pattern in pursuit of something. And in doing so, he was moving uncomfortably closer to the fire.

“Arthur, where are you going?” Merlin tried again.

“Merlin? What are you doing here?” Arthur finally noticed his presence. He faltered in his step, a strange look on his face.

“I asked first,” Merlin said petulantly. “If you hadn’t noticed already, the forest is on fire.”

“Yes, I know that. It’s just that I saw something.”

This time Merlin saw it too, a green fairylike pokémon flying past them, some mystical power radiating off it. “Was that…”

Before Merlin could finish his though, Arthur had run off again after the pokémon. Merlin panicked as he saw the other boy charging straight at the fire. Muttering a curse, Merlin followed him again intent on slapping some sense into him. The pokémon seemed to be waiting for them, just in front of the fire. A protective blue circle of light surrounded it like a bubble.

Merlin could see clearly now that it was indeed a Celebi, with its big onion like head, translucent wings and big blue eyes that were at the moment glowing with power. Merlin stared in wonder at the mythical pokémon. The tendrils of light that surrounded Celebi started spiralling and then spreading outwards to envelop the two humans as well. Celebi gave a faint cry that sounded more like a song, before it closed its eyes in concentration, turned around and flew slowly into the fire. As it flew, a passage seemed to form behind it, fighting off the flames. Wherever the blue light extended, the flames would disappear for green leaves to reappear.

This time, Merlin voluntarily followed the pokémon with Arthur right beside him. They walked at a slow pace, safely contained within the blue tunnel of light. Looking behind him, Merlin could only see fire and blackened trees, while up ahead everything seemed to be green and peaceful. 

“What is this place,” Merlin wondered out loud. “It’s like everything is regrowing while we walk.”

“It’s not, watch closely.” Arthur gestured around them. “The fire isn’t being put out, it’s completely receding. And the leaves aren’t growing back, they are reforming.”

“Celebi is a time-travel pokémon,” Merlin realised. He turned to the blond boy. “Arthur, we’re time-travelling to before the fire started!”

“Yes, but why?”

“What do you mean why? Celebi is a guardian of the forests, of course they don’t want the forest to burn. They must want us to put out the fire before it can spread.” Merlin frowned. “But why would it need our help?”

“You mean, why would it need your help.”

“Really, Arthur? Is this the right time for this?” Merlin squinted his eyes at him.

Arthur shrugged and put his hands into his pockets. “I’m just saying, the Celebi appeared before me. You’re just tagging along.”

“Well who else is going to save your ass when you mess up again? And with a head as big as yours, it’s no wonder you were the first one they could find.” Merlin glared. Arthur glared back.

The scene around them changed suddenly, pokémon were being released en masse around them, the Poké Balls floating away in a strange manner. 

“If we see everything backwards, these pokémon were all captured,” Merlin realised.

They watched the events in reverse, pokémon running away from floating balls that seemed to have a mind of their own. Then they saw the hooded people appear, commanding their psychic type-pokémon to control the poké balls. 

“They started the fire,” Arthur stated, anger resonating in his voice. “To capture pokémon, they set the whole forest on fire.”

Merlin was also far from unaffected by the revelations. He could feel the fear of the wild pokémon, and the twisted dark control the figures were exuding over their own pokémon. It made him sick.

“Merlin,” Arthur called his name, and it sounded as if he might have been doing so for a while now. “You’re not going to cry on me like a scared little girl, are you? 

Arthur’s hand was gripping his shoulder, but Merlin shoved it off chagrined. “I’m fine, thanks for asking.”

Arthur looked at him with an unreadable expression as he said, “Good, cause we’re about to go into battle.” He looked Merlin over with a raised eyebrow and quipped, “Think you can handle that?”

“I’ll show you what I can handle,” Merlin shot back instantly. He wasn’t even sure what the words were supposed to mean. 

Before Arthur could react to that, the blue tunnel flickered out of existence, leaving the two of them stranded in the past, in the middle of a lush green forest. 

“Where did Celebi go?” Merlin wondered. 

Arthur shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, we know what we have to do.” With that said, he took out three Poké Balls and threw them in the air. The Riolu and the Rufflet appeared, alongside a Growlithe.

“I caught him today,” Arthur explained when he saw Merlin’s curious look. 

“Nice,” he said, before releasing his own Charmander and Swablu. “You’ve met Aithusa already, this is Festus. Meet Arthur,” he introduced.

“You name your pokémon?” 

“Yes,” Merlin said defensively. “Some of us do have the brains and creativity for that.”

Arthur rolled his eyes. “Of course you’d be the type to name your pokémon. Let’s focus on the task at hand now, Merlin.”

“It’s not me who started this,” he muttered but acquiesced. “Where do you think the fire started from exactly?”

“Right here. It would be pretty pointless for Celebi to drop us of at any other spot, wouldn’t it?”

Merlin shrugged. “I’ll just look around a bit to be sure. You stay here and give a shout if they appear.”

“You can’t tell me what to do,” Arthur challenged. “If you’re scared you could have just said so, no need to make up any excuses to flee.”

Merlin ignored him for once, only giving him a rude gesture as he ran off. His Pokémon dutifully followed. “Alright then, let’s go find us some reinforcement,” he told them. “Arthur is crazy if he thinks we can fight all those hooded guys off ourselves.”

Once he was out of Arthur’s sight, he turned to Aithusa and Festus. “Let’s split up. Get as many strong pokémon as you can, water ones might be extra helpful. And maybe something against their psychic types – bug, ghost and dark if I remember correctly. The more the merrier, sort of.”

The pokémon gave out their cries before scurrying off. Merlin straightened up and closed his eyes. The forest around him was full of life. He reached out with his mind, trying to connect with other minds around him. Protect home, he tried to send out. He had never quite figured out to what degree the pokémon could understand what he communicated this way, so he decided to keep it simple. Forest fire. Bad guys in dark hoods. Protect, he added again for good measure.

He repeated the process a bit further away as well, before the beginnings of a fight could be heard. “Of course he didn’t shout,” he muttered before running back to where he’d left Arthur. A group of pokémon followed him, emerging from the trees. “Aithusa, Festus!” He called out. 

Merlin could only watch as the pokémon he’d gathered joined in on the battle, unable to do much of the fighting himself. Once Aithusa and Festus joined him, he shouted the occasional move, but he knew that for the most part they could hold their own well enough. 

If Arthur had been surprised at the huge numbers of wild pokémon fighting alongside them, he didn’t show it. He was – quite skilfully, Merlin hated to admit – overlooking three pokémon battles at once. He seemed to be remarkably aware of all the battles, in fact, proven by the occasional commands shouted at the wild pokémon as well. 

In total there must have been around eight hooded figures, Merlin guessed. They all seemed to have teams of at least four pokémon. There was something strange about them, though, that Merlin couldn’t quite pin down. A bad, ominous feeling. Another thing he noticed was that their pokémon were a strange mix of fully evolved ones and some that didn’t seem to have much experience at all. 

The trainers themselves didn’t seem to have that problem; they were annoyingly competent battlers. Although, once they’d realised that their plans would not go unfoiled, they’d panicked and started blazing fires everywhere. It was only thanks to the water-pokémon – a family of Azumarill, a single Wooper, some Buizels and a group of dancing Ludicolo’s – that the fires had remained under control so far.

The real threat made itself apparent when the figures decided to give up on their original plan, and as a last-ditch effort started throwing Poké Balls everywhere. This was Merlin’s main concern. He knew that most of the forest pokémon would manage to escape again, but some of them might have gotten hurt in the battle and might be too weak to get out. “Arthur!” he called out. Once he was sure he had the other’s attention, he instructed, “Have your pokémon redirect the Poké Balls away from the wild ones!”

Arthur didn’t acknowledge him other then turning to his pokémon and saying, “You heard him.”

By this point most of the fighting had already died down, over half of the other side’s pokémon having fainted and been returned back inside their Poké Balls. Merlin himself was now also physically fending off the thrown Poké Balls while rapidly losing his temper. 

“What even is wrong with you people, why are you doing this?” He shouted at them.

“Our state of mind is not your concern, nor are our motives,” a female voice responded. 

“It is our concern when you’re setting fire to forests and enslaving pokémon,” Arthur said, stepping up beside Merlin. “The fight is over. You’ve lost.”

Merlin looked around them and saw it to be true for himself. The opponent’s pokémon had been defeated and the forest pokémon were watching guardedly from a safe distance. 

In the back of the group, some of the figures were discussing in loud whispers. 

“We can hear you, you know!” Merlin called them out. 

The woman from before clenched her fist as she addressed them again. “You insolent boys have no idea what you’re meddling with. We will be back and next time there will be no stopping us.”

That said, they used their psychic pokémon to teleport away.

“Well, that was weird,” Merlin commented after a moment of silence. 

“We were lucky all those forest pokémon were here to help us. Do you think Celebi sent them?” Arthur looked at him, tilting his head ever so slightly.

“Hmm? Oh yeah, definitely.” Merlin nodded. “Very good thinking of them. I’d say you might even owe them your life. I mean, our lives, of course.”

“Yes,” Arthur trailed off, looking thoughtful. “Maybe so. You’re a strange one, Merlin.”

“Oh? I don’t know what makes you say that.”

“Sure you don’t.” Arthur reached out, hitting the back of Merlin’s head. 

“Ow! If you’re done abusing me, we should probably find a way back.” Merlin looked around worriedly, rubbing his head. “Do you think many pokémon were caught?”

Arthur shook his head. “Maybe a handful, but we prevented most of them. Not to mention the forest fire that didn’t happen.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right. We did our best.” He reached down to scratch Festus’ head.

“Of course I’m right, Merlin,” Arthur boasted. “Now let’s get going, I’m not going to wait around here for Celebi to show up again.”

Side by side they walked back in the direction of the lake, their pokémon happily mingling. Rufflet and Aithusa were chasing each other through the air, weaving in and out of the treetops. Though grounded, Festus, Riolu and Growlithe were similarly chasing each other’s tails. Merlin had already thanked the forest pokémon for their help, but he could still feel the presence of some of them flanking them and following them from a distance. Maybe he had made the urge to protect a tad bit too strong. He had a suspicion that the remainder of their journey through the forest of Dean would go much smoother.

Merlin and Arthur walked in silence, remarkably. And it wasn’t even that uncomfortable. Still, Merlin had never liked being quiet.

“So…,” Merlin began and Arthur immediately sighed. “Do you think Celebi makes a habit of kidnapping people and stranding them in another time? Imagine if they’d dropped us further back, maybe even in medieval times! They wouldn’t just leave us there, right?”

“Doesn’t sound too bad, actually,” Arthur said. “You could be my servant, though I shudder to imagine how bad you’d be at it.”

“No way, I’d be a great servant. Wait- hey, why am I the servant here? If anything, I’d be a knight and you a damsel in distress.”

“You? A knight? Don’t make me laugh. And it’s too late now, you’ve already committed to being a servant.”

“You’re such a child.”

“We’re the same age.”

“Maybe we are, but mentally, we’re not.” 

“You’re mental, Merlin.”

A melodious cry rang out, announcing Celebi’s arrival. It seemed much happier than before, flying enthusiastic circles around the humans before briefly joining their pokémon in their games. Merlin smiled at the sight, still slightly in awe at seeing the mythical pokémon.

“Alright Celebi, this has been fun, but can you take us back now?” Arthur asked.

The Celebi gave out another one of its cries and flew up close to Arthur’s face, hovering there for a few moments before doing the same to Merlin. Its eyes glowed a gentle blue and images flashed through Merlin’s mind. A castle with knights and servants, surrounded by a big forest not unlike the one he was in right now. The noises startled Merlin the most, the clanging of swords and so many voices all speaking over each other. Whispered secrets and shouted commands. But it all happened and ended too fast for him to process.

Celebi broke the link, and Merlin’s eyes snapped over to Arthur’s. “Did you just see that?”

“What, the Celebi?”

“No, the…” Merlin cut himself off as he struggled to describe it.  
“Guys! Where have you been, what happened?” It was Gwen, running up to them looking just as she had before the start of the events. “You just ran off and then suddenly the fire was gone, as if it had never been there, only you two were gone as well and I couldn’t find you! Wait, is that- a Celebi?”

The Celebi flew a few more circles, giggling happily before disappearing altogether.

“You guys have a lot to explain.”

They told their story, although Merlin didn’t mention it was him who got the pokémon to help. Afterwards Gwen had decided they might as well stick together until they reached the next city, which Arthur had agreed to – albeit a bit reluctantly. And so it was that the three of them continued on their way to Warwick, where their next adventure awaited them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thanks for reading and please let me know if you liked it. Also don't hesitate to contact me with any ideas you might have for what you'd like to see next. Till next time hopefully!
> 
> Edit: would it be better for me to post the art within the story, as a separate chapter or as a separate work?


	2. Art

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Next instalment will be up soon-ish, in the meantime have this artwork!


End file.
